I think it's safe to be resigned to the fact that Polamalu is going to be a non factor this season. The defense is coming together without him, and as long as the linebackers stay healthy the defense should be fine.

IMO, the vulnerability for this team is at LB and Oline. There's just no depth there.

Troy Loney wrote:I think it's safe to be resigned to the fact that Polamalu is going to be a non factor this season. The defense is coming together without him, and as long as the linebackers stay healthy the defense should be fine.

IMO, the vulnerability for this team is at LB and Oline. There's just no depth there.

Getting Decastro back soon should be huge, and it seems Gilbert is close to ready also. I think that will help the O line.

Harrison sets the edge as well as anyone in the league. it's helped the run defense for sure. He can't get low like he used to to run the passer, but he's still a threat there, besides everyone would just hold him anyway with no flag.

DropEmJayBird wrote:Harrison sets the edge as well as anyone in the league. it's helped the run defense for sure. He can't get low like he used to to run the passer, but he's still a threat there, besides everyone would just hold him anyway with no flag.

Yeah I guess non factor is a bit much, he hasnt made the huge plays but is steady. I'm sure if he wasn't in though the defense wouldn't be as good.

Pavel Bure wrote:I really thought Cruz and Nicks would eat the Steelers alive. Good game all around even with the ref gaffs and that horrid fake FG.

Giants' offense was just terrible. I have no ability to gauge the ratio of Giant's playing poorly:Steelers playing well. Plus I think you have to take into account that the Giants have lost at home to the Eagles and Cowboys, two bad teams.

Basically, I think the Steelers need to win that first Ravens game before i build any confidence about a potential playoff run.

There were a handful of replay showing blanket coverage that led to interceptions or sacks. Also, the 180 yards show that, even if they played poorly, we still dominated. Imagine if we had won by 20 or so, like we should have.

About Ben's fumble, I hear people saying today (incl Savran and co) that they understand the call, but does the call not set the precedent then that any ball that is slipping out of a QB's hand is then a fumble? Maybe that's the letter of the law, but it is never interpreted that way for good reason. That it slips due to influence from a defensive player or for any other reason can't possibly play into it, so if it's raining and the ball slips out of a QB's grasp and lands awkwardly in front of the secondary, it's a fumble? I don't think so.

Yeah, the ruling was incredible, and Cowher looked like a buffoon for suggesting that it was correct. In accordance with Mikey and Gary above, accepting the officials' explanation meant that if the RB would have caught the ball as it came forward, it would have been a fumble recovery instead of a completion -- ludicrous. What if the RB then threw the ball (because he was behind the line and there wasn't a forward pass yet)? According to the officials, that would have been legal.

Dickie Dunn wrote:Nantz and Simms are unbearable. That's my number one thought for this game.

When they mentioned at the beginning of the broadcast that the game was also in spanish, i decided to try that out.

My DVR program has a language track selection option so I picked spanish. there were no commentators or announcers, just crowd noise. it was a really cool way to watch the game.

How the hell is that broadcasting the game in Spanish? Turning off the announcers to save the Spanish speaking community from having their ears violated by the dreadful English language quips of the booth buffons is a far cry from broadcasting the game in Spanish.

I've made that comment before in an NHL thread somewhere that there are some days where I'd rather spend the duration of the game without commentators.

No bias in either direction, no useless stats that I probably won't care about (i.e. Ben is 2/9 on 3rd down conversions vs the NFC East in afternoon games in 2012), and although Nantz/Simms are less guilty than most teams, no bad jokes.

TheHammer24 wrote:Yeah, the ruling was incredible, and Cowher looked like a buffoon for suggesting that it was correct. In accordance with Mikey and Gary above, accepting the officials' explanation meant that if the RB would have caught the ball as it came forward, it would have been a fumble recovery instead of a completion -- ludicrous. What if the RB then threw the ball (because he was behind the line and there wasn't a forward pass yet)? According to the officials, that would have been legal.

Just a terrible, terrible, terrible call.

I think cowher's bitter that the Rooney's wouldn't give him mega bucks,that Tomlin's a better coach and that Ben's a better QB with Cowher gone. He was okay but was a consistent playoff failure as a coach.